- The Triumph of Form Over Content -

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Disclosure

Mike Harris was widely lauded for making top government salaries more
transparent - but be careful not to automatically identify this as a
commitment to greater access to information. This disclosure can be
used to arouse public anger toward admittedly well paid public servants,
in order to fuel support for cutbacks. You can see this in practice
when the Toronto Sun regularly trots out the impressive pay of
bureaucrats like Hospital for Sick Children president Michael
Strofolino.

Ironically, the same kind of disclosure in the private sector (which,
incidentally, highlights what an incredible bargain our public servants
are compared to their private sector counterparts) tends to fuel faster
growth in executive salaries. If the CEO of, say, MacMillan Bloedel
sees that his opposite number at, say, Domtar is making more than double
the money, he has fuel to approach his board for an increase in his
compensation package, if they want to retain his services.